In 1971, Go Ask Alice became an instant sensation. The anonymous diary detailed the life of a teen girl who tries LSD and is seduced into the fatal world of addiction. Emerson unveils the woman responsible for the book, Beatrice Sparks. Sparks, a "psychologist," claimed to have met Alice at a convention and published the diary as a cautionary tale at the request of Alice's parents. This story has never been corroborated. Go Ask Alice's success inspired suicide victim Alden Barrett's mother to send his journal to Sparks with hopes that she would raise awareness about mental health. Alden's story was twisted into 1978's Jay's Journal, a ludicrous tale about a young man driven to madness by devil worship. The fictional work, published and marketed as fact, tore apart the Barrett family and ignited the Satanic panic, ruining countless lives. An absorbing and unnerving read about how one conniving con artist's unquenchable thirst for acclaim fooled the publishing world and fed two cultural panics with lasting fallout, this book demands to be finished in one sitting.